Alison McGovern (born 30 December 1980) is a British politician who has served as

Shadow Minister for Employment The office of Shadow Minister for Employment is a position on the United Kingdom's Official Opposition frontbench, and has occasionally been a position in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom), Shadow Cabinet. From 1970 to 1995, ...

since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Wirral South Wirral South is a constituency in Merseyside, England represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Alison McGovern of the Labour Party since 2010. Constituency profile Wirral South covers the central part of the Wirral peninsu ...

since 2010.

Early life

The granddaughter of songwriter and activist

Peter McGovern Peter John McGovern (28 October 1927 – 1 April 2006) was an English songwriter and activist. Life and career Pete McGovern was born in Liverpool, England, on 28 October 1927. Both of his parents were Irish. His father, Thomas McGovern, was fro ...

, she was born in

Clatterbridge Clatterbridge is a hamlet (place), hamlet on the Wirral Peninsula, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is to the south-west of Bebington and close to the M53 motorway. Clatterbridge is also the name of Clatterbridge (w ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, the daughter of a

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

telecoms engineer father and a mother who was a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

. She was educated at Brookhurst Primary School, and then

Wirral Grammar School for Girls ("A monument more lasting than bronze", from Horace's Poem 3:30) , established = 1931 , closed = , type = Grammar school;Academy , religious_affiliation = , president ...

, where she was the Head Girl from 1998 to 1999. She then studied Philosophy at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. On graduation, she worked as a researcher at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, before handling communications for development projects at

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, then working for the

Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

and

Creativity, Culture and Education Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) is a UK-based international foundation dedicated to unlocking the creativity of children and young people in and out of formal education. This is done primarily through designing and implementing programmes ...

Political life

McGovern was first elected as a councillor for

Brunswick Park Brunswick Park is a neighbourhood, public park and electoral ward in the London Borough of Barnet. It is north of New Southgate and to the south of Oakleigh Park. Roads include Brunswick Park Road, Brunswick Avenue and Brunswick Crescent. Amen ...

in the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...

in 2006, later becoming the Deputy Leader of the borough council's 29-member group of Labour councillors.

Parliamentary career

McGovern was selected as the Labour Party candidate for

in December 2009, following Ben Chapman's decision to stand down at the next election for family reasons following adverse publicity in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' over the expenses scandal, and subsequently won the seat in the 2010 general election, defeating the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

candidate, Jeff Clarke, by 531 votes. Alison McGovern 2, Any Questions, 2016

McGovern made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2010 in a debate on European Affairs. She became former Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

's parliamentary private secretary in July 2010. On 14 September 2010, she held her first adjournment debate regarding employment prospects for young people in Wirral. In November 2010. She was selected by the PLP to become a member of the

International Development Select Committee The International Development Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the international aid functions o ...

. In December 2010, she introduced a

Private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

before Parliament that would amend the

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964c 75 is an act of the United Kingdom Parliament. It created a statutory duty for local authorities in England and Wales "to provide a comprehensive and efficient library A library is a collection o ...

to broaden the scope of the general duty of library authorities so as to include a duty to provide related cultural facilities alongside the library service. In March 2011, she visited India as part of an International Development Select Committee delegation. In the 2013 Labour reshuffle, she was added to the Shadow International Development team. In 2014, she was moved to the shadow Children and Families portfolio. In May 2015, McGovern was appointed as shadow city minister in Labour's treasury team, but did not stay on the opposition frontbench after

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

was elected Labour leader in September 2015. In October 2015, McGovern was appointed as Chair of

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

, a political organisation associated with the development of

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

. In January 2016, McGovern resigned from Labour's policy review on child poverty and combating inequality, as a protest against Progress being described by shadow Chancellor

John McDonnell John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...

as having "a hard right agenda". She commented that she had been "backed into a corner". A Labour Party spokesperson stated "She is resigning from something that doesn't exist", as the initiative had not been confirmed or launched yet. She supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

in the

2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 2016 Labour Party leadership election was called when a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party arose following criticism of his approach to the Remain campaign in the referendum on membership of the European Union and q ...

. In September 2016 McGovern was elected co-chair of the

all-party parliamentary group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

Friends of Syria.

Personal life

In 2008 McGovern married economist Ashwin Kumar, formerly a senior civil servant in the

Department for Work and Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...

and Passenger Director at

Passenger Focus Transport Focus is the statutory watchdog for transport passengers and road users in Great Britain, with offices in London and Manchester. It was named the Rail Passengers Council until January 2006 when renamed Passenger Focus. It was renamed ag ...

. The couple have a daughter, born in 2011.

Notes

References

External links

Alison McGovern MP
official site * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGovern, Alison 1980 births Living people Alumni of University College London Councillors in the London Borough of Southwark English people of Irish descent Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Wirral Grammar School for Girls UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians Members of the Fabian Society 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England